Descendants of Remnant
by Veraduxxz
Summary: Abstergo rules Remnant and The Assassins are few in number but possess power the Templars do not. These powers are passed on to their descendants and both the Assassins and Abstergo know this. Using the Animus, Abstergo seeks to find and take the powers for their own. But the Assassins seek to free their subjects. When four subjects die, their next in line are to be found and used.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

 **Well, as a new name in this fandom, I might have to leave a few words here. I am a writer on this website for a while now, mainly League and Animé fanfics. This is my first RWBY fanfic that I work on, and it has been quite interesting thus far. I met Veraduxxz through a skype group filled with writers, and since we're both Dutch, and I was semi-beta'ing on his main fanfic already (thus pulling me (back) into RWBY), so we decided to work together on this really awesome idea.**

 **Anyway, I think I need to start rewatching the series now… For now, Veraduxxz has been delivering the knowledge, while I provide the superior writing.**

 **Without kidding, I am pretty hyped for this project, all that's left is to find out how to balance this with Wish of an Angel, and my quest for writing more M-rated stuff at the League Fandom. Anyhow, vacation's here, so there should be enough time. Writing this goes fast, and is fun, and -as said- I am pretty hyped up for the ideas that we have for this story. In case that you enjoyed this story, go see Vera's others, and check out mine while you're at it. ;-] See you in the next chapter!**

 **-Alsodef**

 **So. I don't really have to tell you a lot about the guy who wrote the author's note above me except that he is quite a sarcastic dude at some points. *cough*.**

 **Anyway, this kind of started off funny, and this was the project I was talking about in Weapons Pointed at the Enemy - Redux Chapter 18. The idea came up and me and Alsodef started working on it. We have a large part of the storyline set up. It's going to be awesome. I brainstorm or discuss certain parts with Alsodef for Weapons anyway, so working together was quite easy.**

 **But, I won't hold up any longer. Please enjoy Chapter 1 - Beginning**

 **Veraduxxz**

 **Chapter 1 - Beginnings**

"Here at Abstergo Industries, we pride ourselves in advancing the human race by finding and enhancing the technologies of the past. In the last century, humanity has come far as we have researched and developed much of the luxuries and necessities the world now enjoys." the screen droned on. A commercial, mostly shown to the visitors to Abstergo Industries to 'woo' them into excitement for their products. To James Ironwood however, it was nothing but a repetitive nuisance on every working day of his life.

As Chief of the Animus division, more specifically Lineage Research and Acquisition, he was tasked with finding, acquiring and researching potential 'Assassins' belonging to the Brotherhood of Assassins', and making sure that they would be killed, or captured in order to study their use of 'Magic'. It had been a phenomenon that had been unknown to the Templars, but had been the bane of their existence for the longest time.

It hadn't been until they had placed a sleeper agent into the Brotherhood of Assassins a few years ago that they could destroy their enemies in an event that would be called 'The Great Purge'. All over Remnant Assassins were killed along with destruction of their bases, safehouses and training facilities. Of course Abstergo hadn't managed to kill all of the Assassins, but what remained would never be able to challenge them again, provided they would ensure it. That was where James' division came in.

The Lineage Research and Acquisition program was a program that had it's primary use in finding and capturing Assassins or their descendants in order to explore their memories and find the source of their magic, potentially to harness it for Abstergo themselves to complete the ascendance of the New World Order according to their plans.

However, it seemed that every day, some new failure struck the project, leaving their data incomplete and unusable. Taking people by force had of course the result that they would not always cooperate. Not to mention that it wasn't unusual for subjects to suffer from the bleeding effect, causing their brains to slowly deteriorate into madness, as some subjects before had done.  
But nevertheless, their current subjects had provided more results as time had gone by. It had been the first time where they had found subjects that shared memories because their ancestors had been an Assassin squad, working together to complete most of their missions.

Stepping into his office and opening up the terminal, he quickly typed in his password. He had hoped more information about the 'Magic' the Assassins used would become clear soon.  
As was customary there were many threatening e-mails from the higher-ups demanding results, and it only spurred him on to push his team and the subjects further to get them, even against the advice of his director. It wasn't until he read an encrypted e-mail about a hacking attempt that he feared the worst.

A tap on the glass door to his office alerted James and he already knew that the woman outside would bring nothing but more bad news. "Come in." James spat, his sour mood only worsening.

"Sir, we have a problem." the director said as her heels clicked on the marble floor.

With a heavy sigh James closed the digital terminal in front of him. "Tell me."

"There was a glitch in the Animus system. Subject 15 through 18 are dead." she said. James noticed four file folders in her hand already.

"How did this happen?" James demanded. The Board would not like this if he didn't find a solution to this and quick.

"We believe the Brotherhood of Assassins hacked into the system. As a result there are a lot of garbled memories in the memory bank and we think it caused the Animus to crash while the subjects were in it. We believe the Brotherhood of Assassins tried to inject their own memories into our data banks." the director said.

"I presume you've already sent the data to the Requisitioners so we can take care of them?" James stated gruffly.

"No. The signal was short and only injected something. We couldn't backtrace it properly. However, there is a silver lining." the director said before she put the folders on James' desk.

He took the top one and flipped it open. _Ruby Rose_ , he read to himself. _Descendant of 'Summer Rose', timeline start: 1478._ He didn't need the specific details, just the necessary ones.

Taking the next one, he flipped it open and continued to read. _Yang Xiao Long, Descendant of 'Raven Branwen', timeline start: 1480._

Taking the next folder, he repeated the process. _Weiss Schnee, Descendant of 'Winter Schnee', timeline start: 1480._

"So I presume you've come to me with these files for a reason." James stated as he opened the last one. _Blake Belladonna, Descendant of [Name Unknown], Codename "Belladonna", timeline start: 1484'._

"Yes. These are other descendants. Their locations are known and we are able to retrieve them right now. They are still just young children, but we could control them into helping us achieving our goal through exposure from this young of an age." the director said.

"Good. Do it. I'll inform the Board about the situation. Get the technicians to make sure this won't happen again. The Board will not tolerate another failure like this, I'm sure." James said, closing the last folder and shoving them towards the director again.

"Of course sir. I will make sure of it." she answered quickly, taking the folders and walking away, the clacking of her heels on the marble echoing around his office until she left.

James sighed to himself and rubbed his eyes with two of his fingers in frustration. The Brotherhood of Assassins had been a thorn in his side from the moment he got control of the program, but now they actually managed to kill his subjects. He opened the terminal on his desk again, typing in the special code for contact with the board. After a brief moment, the feed of his own camera sprang to life as he could see the other board members as well. At the head stood the General of the Cross.

"Ma'am, Gentlemen. There's been a situation." James started, hoping they would show mercy upon him.

* * *

"YANG! Yang! Wake up! It's saturday! We have the whole day to do what we want! Yaahaaaang, wake up!" The red haired girl was bouncing around the other bed inside the small room, occasionally shaking the lump on the bed roughly.

On top of the pillow, a bunch of unruly blond hair peeked from below the blanket. The girl, Yang, woke up rather slow. Her night hadn't been the best, as she had been awake a few times in the middle of the night, and her friend Ruby waking her like this was not always how she preferred her morning to start.

Since there was no stopping her roommate from bouncing around all excited in her pyjamas, Yang rose from her bed as well. Taking a few moments and shakes of her head to erase the slumber of the night, she headed through the hallway, a bunch of recently washed clothes on her arm. Ruby continued to bounce, even increasing her speed and excitement as they went towards the showers.

A few minutes later, both of them left their respective showering booths, hair bound in a turban of white towel, in Yang's case. Now, somewhat more awake, Yang realised that Ruby was right, and that it was in fact saturday. Saturday meant that there was nothing that they had to do, and therefore they could spend all the time on their own. Or in Yang's case, with Ruby.

They had been together for as long as she could remember, which wasn't all that long, but still. She didn't know why, but she always felt more connected to Ruby, even when she was waking her up like this, which happened way too often… Anyway, today was free-day.

"Yang, today is saturday. Cookie quest?" Ruby asked at her side with a hopeful voice, as she tugged Yang's shirt.

Yang smiled. It was their ritual to start their saturday with a cookie quest. Which was exactly as it sounds like: a quest for the cookie jar. The cookie jar was always placed in the kitchen, on top of a high shelf, by the matron herself. It was higher than Yang could reach, even when she would stand on the tips of her toes. However, with the addition of Ruby, they were always able to just reach high enough.

So, that was how they started their free-day. They would avoid the matron by sneaking into the kitchen when she started doing the morning round, and Ruby would climb on Yang's shoulders to reach the cookie jar.

"Higher Yang… Hnnng, yay!" The cheerful voice of the small red haired girl was accompanied by the sound of moving glass on wood, as well as a soft plop, signalling that the cookie jar was opened.

A hand reached down, handing Yang three cookies. Still having Ruby on her shoulders, Yang nibbled on the first chocolate chip loot. That's when she heard the door open behind them. In her haste to spin around, Ruby lost her balance, and after a few clumsy moves, fell down.

As a heap of red and yellow, they tried their best to get back on their feet fast, only to realise that they were in big trouble. In front of them stood the matron herself, together with a man in black and white clothes, and a green piece of cloth around his neck and in front of his chest.

Yang wasn't sure who he was, but she knew that the matron would scold them for their cookie quests. However, it was the man who spoke up.

"Hello Yang, Ruby. We have been searching for you, can you join me for a moment?"

* * *

Weiss sat on her bed, knees drawn up to her body. It was almost a ritual that she repeated every morning. The kids would call her names, she'd conjure .. 'something' and she'd scare them off and be left alone. 'Ice Princess' was one that they called her often, followed by 'freak'.

Weiss simply rejected their name calling. She was just different. Her 'powers' made her more than them, and that's what scared them. She didn't need anyone. She could only trust herself.

The door to the sleeping hall opened with a loud creak. The owner of the orphanage standing in the opening with two men in black suits in tow. Weiss looked over her knees at them.

"Weiss? These men are here to take you away, to your new home." the owner said, trying to sound as compassionate as possible.

Weiss kept silent and just stared at them, not showing any emotion.

One of the black men tried to make his way past the owner who stopped him with a hand. In a low tone, he spoke to him "Be careful. There have been incidents with her and the other orphans."

The first man simply pushed the hand away and made his way over to Weiss, standing at the foot of her bed and crouched down. "We're going to take you to a place where we can help you, okay?" he said, smiling at her a little and motioning his hand out to her to hold.

Weiss looked at him, then at his hand. Slowly she dropped her knees and took his hand, standing up from her bed. "Will I be okay?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes. We'll make sure of it." the man said as he guided her out of the sleeping hall.

* * *

Laughing, Blake lunged at her father with her wooden sword again. The rhythmic 'clacking' of wood against wood filled the backyard, as it did often since she had gotten the swords for her sixth birthday only a month ago. Blake loved to mock sword fight with her father. She had always loved the stories her father told her of her ancestors, mighty Assassins slaying the evil with superior might and skill. Her father too, wielded a sword, and she looked up to him to learn how to fight with one herself. This birthday, she had gotten a wooden one to practice with and Blake always tried to train every day.

The cat-ears on the top of her head, a trait from her Faunus heritage, twitched as they listened for every move her father would make. Blake would always try and hit him and sometimes her father would let her, she knew. But it still seemed she got better and better, at least to her. Sometimes she could hear his foot stepping in and instinctively remembered what he'd do next, so she'd block him.

"Lunch!" her mother called out, causing Blake to turn her head. A tap on her stomach was met with a loud guffaw by her father.

"And I win again!" he proclaimed victoriously.

Blake scoffed. "Not fair! You cheated! I was distracted!"

"Ah, but a swordswoman must always know their surroundings. Because if you forget a single thing.." her father started, pausing his words for a brief moment. Blake leaned it to listen to him closer before she noticed the mischievous glint in his eyes.

"A large Grimm might come and whisk you away!" he yelled, grabbing her, causing a playful giggle from Blake. He flung her over his shoulder and carried her inside.

"Oh my." her mother said, laughing a little. "Ever the brute."

Blake stabbed him softly in the back with the sword. "I'll take down this dangerous Grimm, mommy!"

Her father mock-growled as he fell onto his knees and placed Blake carefully on the floor, before falling onto his stomach with a defeated growl. Blake smiled and placed a foot on her father's back and striking a heroic pose. Quickly her mother grabbed the photo camera and shot a picture, the polaroid printed instantly.

"Well, Hero, you still need to eat to stay strong, so if you'd sit down.." her mother said and shook the polaroid to help its development process.

Her father stood up as Blake got off of him. "She's right. You've got to eat to become big and strong."

Blake quickly went to the table to sit in her seat, grabbing at the sandwich her mother had made for her and taking a large bite out of it.

Blake loved every part of her life. She was practicing her sword fighting and she had many books she could read. She didn't have many friends, but she didn't mind. There was enough to keep her busy.

It started with a knock on the door. Her father looked through the hole of the door before he turned to her mother with his expression grave. "Get Blake to the hiding spot and signal for help. Abstergo is here."

Her mother nodded at him. Blake was confused for a moment when her mother picked her up. Blake quickly grabbed the sword from the table as she was hoisted up and they went up the stairs.

"Mommy, what's going on?" she asked, becoming quickly more scared as her mother too had lost her warm expression.

"There are some bad men at the door, Blake. Mommy and Daddy are just going to have a talk with them." her mother said, trying to reassure her. The warmth in her voice was still there, but it sounded shaken.

Getting to the top floor of the house, her mother put her down and pulled a few books out of the bookcase and it opened up a hidden door, much to Blake's surprise. Her mother quickly ushered her inside.

"Blake, listen to me closely. Put your hands over your ears and don't come out of this room until me or daddy comes get you, okay dear?" her mother said.

Blake nodded at her mother with wide eyes. "O-okay."

Her mother smiled at her, cupping her cheek. She looked sad. "I love you Blake. So does daddy." she said before closing the door and leaving Blake in the darkness.

The moment it closed, Blake put her hands over the ears on the top of her head and closed off the ears on the side of her head with her arms. She could hear a dull cracking sound and a heavy thump. Then she could hear yelling. She couldn't hear what the yelling was about, but it didn't sound good. Blake curled in on herself, trying her best to stay strong. Then she heard a dull ringing off steel before two 'pops' silenced them. Blake didn't know why, but a deep pit formed in her stomach and she felt crying.

 _Mommy or Daddy will get me out of here soon. I just have to wait_. Blake thought to herself. Every passing minute felt like agony to her, only footsteps signalling anything in the house. There weren't anymore loud noises, but still, Blake reminded herself of her mother's words.

Slowly the heavy footsteps disappeared, but Blake continued to stay put. When she didn't hear anything anymore, against her better judgement, she slowly pushed open the door. A soft creaking was heard as she opened it enough to look out.

"Mommy..?" Blake hesitantly called out. She could hear a pair of footsteps ascend the stairs and it felt like the pit in her stomach disappeared. However, when someone in black combat armor ascended the stairs, she was immediately frightened.

"Where's Mommy?" Blake asked again, slowly backing off of the man.

"She's with us. Just come along." the man answered, the heavy combat gear muffling his words only slightly.

"No, Mommy told me to wait for her or daddy!" Blake said and defiantly held up her wooden sword, aiming it at the man.

"Just come on kid, I don't have time for this." he grunted and tried to lunge at her to grab her.

Blake closed her eyes as she thrust the sword forward, causing a noise from the man. He slumped to the ground and it took a couple of seconds for Blake to open her eyes again. The man in combat armor laid at her feet, another man, this time in a scruffy cape and shirt standing in front of her. He had slick gray hair and his eyes were coloured deep red. On his back was a large sword with what seemed like gears in the middle.

"Hey there.. Blake right? I'm a friend of your mom and dad." the figure said, his voice gruff.

"W-where are they?" Blake said, her voice shaking by how scared she truly was.

"Don't worry. They're at a safe place. Your dad told me to give you this." he said and presented her a stuffed animal. It was a black cat. Hesitantly, Blake took it and hugged it tightly. It smelled like her father and quickly made it apparent that the man was indeed a friend of her mother and her father.

"What's your name?" Blake asked, peering over the top of the stuffed cat.

"Just call me Uncle Qrow, okay?" he said and smiled sympathetically. "Could you give me your sword? We have to give this man something to defend himself against the Grimm with."

Blake hesitantly gave him her wooden sword. "Okay. He's a mean man, though."

"I know. But sometimes mean men get what they deserve anyways." Qrow said and gently took the sword. "You just go sit on the stairs and don't look at me, okay? I'll make sure he knows he got it."

"Okay." Blake said and sat down on the side of the stairs.

With his own sword, Qrow shattered part of the wooden sword. A large frayed wooden spike now showed instead of the smoothed edge of the wooden toy. As silently as he could he shoved the wooden spike in the back where he had stabbed the man. Once it was firmly lodged in, Qrow stood up and walked over to the stairs.

"I'm going to pick you up okay? We've got quite a way to go and there might be scary monsters on the way, so don't open your eyes until I say so." Qrow said.

Blake nodded and closed her eyes. Qrow gently picked her up and made his way down the stairs, passing the living room. The house was a mess after they had tried to search for Blake, but in the middle, close to each other, Blake's parents laid. Qrow allowed himself one last mournful look before he stepped out of the house and made his way over to the Brotherhood's base, Blake in his arms.

* * *

"So, Miss De Lys, was it?" the man in front of her asked. "Why exactly would you want to work at Abstergo?".

She smiled, "Aside from the nice pay and lovely benefits?".

Her attempt of humour was apparently well received, for the man chuckled and nodded. "Yes, aside from that. Surely a girl with such high grades and recommendations can work anywhere."

"Well Sir, I have always been really interested in history. And that's basically what the Lineage Research branch is all about, right?"

"Yes, that's true indeed. We at Abstergo take great care in noting down all of history, provide another perspective, you see?"

"Yes sir, I know that. It's because of this that I would like to work here. I would love to be close to history, how it truly happened."

The man nodded, and wrote something down on his paper. "You do realise that, as an assistant, you will not be diving in yourself? Every now and then we get applications of people who are supposedly interested in the job, but only come here to experience the Animus themselves."

"Yes sir, I was aware of that as well. It doesn't really matter, as long as I am close enough to observe it. I have been in an Animus before myself already, so I don't really need to come here for the experience alone."

"You dived before? Really? As who, if I may ask?"

"My great-great-grandfather. He was a captain on a battleship that fought the Grimm. They wanted to know more about the ship, since they recently discovered it's shipwreck. It felt really weird, to dive as a man, but it was fun on it's own. However, it was the technology that interested me far more than the actual diving itself, so I studied Mechanical Engineering, with a thesis on the Animus."

"You studied ME, with a thesis? Ah yes, I recall seeing something like that in your papers. Quite remarkable for a woman of twenty-three. Anyway, I think you are pretty much clear for the job. Of course, this conversation is more of a formality anyway, but thank you for taking your time. We would like you to be here tomorrow at ten, ask for a guy named Jonathan at the reception desk, he'll show you around the building, and introduce you to the head scientist of the Animus department, as well as the scientist you will be working with. Any questions?"

"No sir, I think everything is perfectly clear, thank you." The black haired, nineteen year old Blake, currently known as Belle De Lys, replied to the Templar with a smile, before rising from her chair, shaking the extended hand of her conversation partner, and leaving the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**I've already said that I'm terrible at updating and everything. I am of the sorry. It doesn't help that my girlfriend is currently back and we're basically remodelling the whole apartment. So yeah. My bad. Chapter 19 of Weapons Pointed at the Enemy is coming REAL soon. Like, 2-3 hours after this is published soon. So. Yeah.**

 **Thanks Alsodef for hunting my ass on finishing this chapter and thanks all of you guys who have reviewed / followed / favorited the story. It's an experiment, but me and Alsodef are -VERY- confident you guys will like this story. So just keep holding on.**

* * *

 **Just a quick message. I / We appreciate any and all feedback you give us, so please don't hesitate to do so. Also, poke Vera at any and all opportunities to tell him to "Update plz", he'll like that. (** _Note from Vera: Goddamn you_ _ **.)**_

 **Hope you enjoy this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it. :D**

 **-Alsodef**

* * *

The target had been some no-name. A merchant who helped the Templars with their weaponry. It had been no surprise that he was paid a lot to exclusively supply them. But, it also made him part of them, or at the very least he had hoped so.

Carefully Blake walked closer and closer to the panicked merchant, making sure not to make any sound.

"Please! Someone help! They're following me!" the merchant screamed desperately. But there was no way in or out the alley, the traps, already in place, made sure of that. There were a lot of dead bodies around the merchant already, even though she had only just loaded into the memory. It was odd, but probably the work of her friends at the order, who was at one of its power peaks at the time of this memory. It was several years before the terrible purge by the Templars, where they had killed a large amount of assassins. Speaking of Templars, some were still standing...

She stepped over the corpses of the last two guards defending him, flicking her weapon once to wind it back in its sheath, and looked the merchant in his eyes.

There would be no witnesses in this alleyway, so there was only one last thing to do. Carefully Blake moved her ring finger, unlocking the mechanism of the hidden blade and sliding the blade forward. A few quick steps and it was over, the blade lodged deeply in his neck as a gurgle left his lips.

Carefully Blake laid him down, the surroundings slowly fading to the familiar neutral animus environment, leaving her and the merchant alone.

"I never meant for people to get hurt." he labored through pained breaths.

Blake held her tongue, merely looking at the merchant as he stared at her, fear apparent in his eyes.

Slowly she watched life fading away from his body, as she let go of him gently, making him just another body amongst the dead in the alley. When she looked up and the surroundings returned, she saw three other assassins stand close to her, their traditional garbed highlighted with three distinct colors. The small woman with the large scythe was highlighted with red, the woman with the rapier was highlighted with an icy light blue and the last, taller woman with yellow bracelets was highlighted with yellow highlights. Suddenly Blake realized, that this was not her memory alone.

* * *

Left foot, left arm, right foot, right arm. Three out of four, Ruby. Three out of four. This wasn't her first mission, nor was it her first mission that involved tracking. But Ruby found herself often needing to repeat the motions in her head. She knew that Summer, whose live she was living right now, was an elite by now, but that didn't mean that all that climbing came naturally to her. Anyway, she had been desynchronised quite enough times while climbing in the past, but she thought herself at least decent by now.

Grasping the edge of the roof, she pulled up with half a flip, looking it over in a search for enemy guards. There were no guards on her current roof, but she spotted two on the next roof, idly chatting among themselves. She huffed, even Ruby knew that was a foolish thing to do. Not that she minded at this moment though. Enhancing her speed, she ran towards the edge, and took the jump.

For a few moments, she felt the magical feeling of flying through open air, seeing the streets below her, and feeling the air rush straight into her face. It only took two seconds, yet one of the guards noticed her just before she landed. Before he could shout a warning however, Ruby's hands clasped around the staff on her back, and slashed towards both of her opponents. During the slash, the nasty part of her weapon showed itself, turning the staff into a deadly scythe. The raised blade that the closest guard tried to block her with proved useless, as the weight and speed of the scythe forced it down, carving a red stripe over and through his chest. The other guard was fumbling with his weapon, shooting Ruby distraught looks while attempting to get himself and his steel out of the clutch. Another swing of the scythe ended his struggles, and with nothing louder than a whimper, he fell on the ground, clutching his chest. In a fast move, Ruby grabbed the collar of the guard she killed first, preventing it from falling down the roof.

She peered down on the square. Their target was speaking with another merchant, unaware of the imminent danger. Focussing deeply, she enhanced her eyes in the way many assassins were capable of. It allowed her to gather and process information much faster, and notice more. From what she could see with her enchanted sight, she spotted eight guards belonging to the bodyguard of the merchant, and three guards who just patrolled over the market square.

Intel they had gathered over the past three days told them that he would be meeting with the Templars. Ruby, or rather Summer, was doing a final scouting run to search for traps, and find out which of the meeting places their target would pick. Seeing as he was here now, this made the templar base near the harbor the most logical spot. Ruby smiled, she knew enough. Now it would be up to Weiss and Yang.

* * *

Weiss waited patiently near a group of monks, making sure she blended in as much as possible with her hood up. The intel had been solid and she had hoped Ruby, or rather her ancestor Summer, could confirm it. If she wouldn't get any signal, it would be solid and the plan would continue.

Weiss had planned ahead and made sure the glyphs her ancestor, Winter, used were placed already. They weren't visible, all it would take is for the target to make the right turn and her to activate them.

After a few more moments, Weiss found her patience to run thin. The target should've been here already. Gently she tapped her fingers on the hilt of the weapon of her ancestor, a beautiful rapier she had become quite versed in using after many months of fencing training both in and outside the animus.

She looked down the street from the town square, where target would be coming from. Finally the guards turned the corner, causing Weiss to sigh in relief. Shortly after that the target came into view. Weiss kept her head level, knowing her task would soon be complete, provided their route was the one they anticipated.

Finally, the entourage of the merchant made their way into the alley. Weiss quickly stood up and slid into the shadows behind them. After the merchant had made it's way to the middle of the single-way alley, Weiss triggered the traps, causing large ice-spikes to block the exits. Keeping to the shadows, it was now time for Yang to start her beatdown.

* * *

Yang smirked. Below her, the guards and their target realised that they were in trouble. She jumped down, not wasting any more time, and got to work. As usual, the parts that required more finesse were left to Ruby and Weiss, or Summer and Winter, as her ancestor called them in these memories. Her right blade embedded itself in the neck of one of the poor guards, piercing multiple large blood vessels, by the looks of it. Yang continued her spin, dodged a thrust of her next target, and pushed both her hidden blades through his chest. Most of the guards were now aware of where the danger was coming from, and went to encircle her. Yang smirked again, this was proving to be much more fun than the standard memories she had gone through thus far.

"Yaah! Yaah! Huff! Yaah!" Three punches, interrupted by one block. One dead Templar, one with a broken arm and a dropped blade. Half a second later, he joined his former comrade on the ground. It appeared to be the last guard that was still standing, but where was the merchant? In all the ruckus, he had apparently fled further down the alley, now standing near one of the walls of ice, two Templars still accompanying him, both with blades drawn. The rest of the alley was littered with bodies. Seeing that there was nothing else moving near her, she strode towards the merchant, bearing both her hidden blades.

 ***Warning, Leaving Memory, Desynchronisation Imminent.***

"What the…" Yang spoke aloud. Was this a glitch? Why couldn't she enter the next part of the alley? Had she failed?"

Next to her, Ruby, or Summer, jumped down from one of the roofs. "You seeing this Rubes?"

"Hmhmm, I have the same. Any idea as to what is going on here Weiss?" Summer spoke, just as much at loss at the situation as Yang.

"Girls, look!" Weiss spoke up, pointing down the alleyway. What they saw was hard to describe. There was a black mess of numbers, and rifts of some sort. It was hard to make sense of, but both the guards dropped dead, and the merchant followed several moments later, grasping at his neck. Suddenly, the barrier dropped, and all three of the girls found themselves in the white Animus Environment. The merchant spoke to the black cloud, and died. Around them, the memory faded, and Yang opened her eyes to the familiar sight of electronic screens and data just inches away from her face. Next to her, the new research assistant pushed a button, sliding the screen to the left.

Shaking her head, Yang climbed off the Animus. Next to her, Ruby and Weiss were going through the exact same. The director was nowhere to be seen, so Yang addressed the new girl first. "Hey, Belle was it? Do you have any idea as to what happened just now? It looked super weird…"

The girl seated on a desk in the same room as their Animus machines were located shook her head, and answered with a short shake of her head, furiously typing on her computer, probably already looking for the cause of the problem. Yang didn't know all that much about computer technology, and she doubted if she could be of any help. Still, she walked over to the desk, and looked at what Belle was doing.

* * *

 _Crap! Crap! Crap!_ Blake thought to herself as her fingers quickly hammered on the keys of the animus console. _How are these memories still active with 'that' part in it?!_

"Can I.. uh.. Do anything to help?" Yang stated again.

 _Yes, but if I told you, you'd be killed!_ Blake mentally yelled at Yang.

"No. I think it's best if you three wait for the official escort back to your rooms. Which, I suspect, will be shortly." Blake said, maintaining her calm voice and posture even though there was chaos and panic in her mind.

The blonde peered at Blake for a moment, causing Blake's heart to skip a beat as she looked right back at her. _Does she know? Remember Blake, don't react. Keep calm._

"You have the strangest eyes. Sorry. I just, never seen someone with eyes like yours." Yang said, laughing a little and smiling.

Inside, Blake sighed a breath of relief. "Well, thank you for the compliment, I guess." Blake said dryly.

Much to her relief, the doors opened and three security officers walked in. "Alright ladies, you know the deal. Let's get you back to the common-room. You'll have to stay there until we've got this fixed." the main guard said, smiling as he spoke.

"Oh come on!" Ruby whined as she walked after Weiss and Yang to the hallway outside the Animus Centre.

Blake sighed a real breath of relief now as she accessed the memory banks of abstergo and pulled the memory block to her computer. Examining it, the corruption of the file itself was clear. But the boundaries they had set up in advance of her undercover mission turned out to be not fully functional. Already Blake saw the memories inside the DNA of Ruby, Weiss and Yang begin to repair the memory, leaving a glitched version of the full memory instead of a cut-off version.

Blake felt a lump in her throat at the realization. Either they needed to continue to corrupt the memory blocks or Blake needed to speed up the plan.

 _This plan was supposed to take months. Looking at this, it might be weeks.. Damnit._ Blake thought to herself.

A harsh cough broke Blake from her thought, seeing the director stand next to her. "Do you have a report on what's happened?"

"Yes. It appears that some of the memories in the bank are corrupted. But it seems that exposure of the subjects with the memories has managed to uncorrupt them due to implementation of the original ancestors' memories. I'm sure that if we continue as planned, we'll find what we're looking for." Blake said.

"Good. Keep up with the work then. I want to have the system ready tomorrow again." the director stated again and the hiss of the door meant that Blake was alone again.

 _I need to find a solution for this, and fast._ Blake thought.

* * *

 _Two years earlier…_

* * *

"Qrow, we have a situation…" Blake started the moment she ended the synchronisation and the Animus process. "I saw others, Bella was involved with a squad, and I saw other assassins in the bright white of the Animus. You know, when Bella was talking to the merchant."

Qrow looked up from his book, left eyebrow raised, and gave her a curious expression. "An assassin squad? That's odd. I never read any records of Belladonna being in a squad like that. What did they look like? Any specific features you could spot?"

Blake nodded once as she walked over to the computer next to the Animus. "Yes, although it was short, and they were standing behind Bella. There were three of them, and they wore clothes in the same style as Bella. You know, Assassin Style, easily recognisable and all that."

Qrow smirked at her words, knowing how much this irritated Blake. To think that a hidden guild that was fighting an underground and undercover war against a larger enemy would wear clothes that basically beamed their affiliation into the wide world. He signalled Blake to go on, to which his protege turned the computer screen around.

"Here, red, white and yellow. Faces hidden below the cloak, as is Bella's. You have any idea who these people are Qrow?"

"No, I do not. I guess we'll have to put our researches to work again, and dive into the books ourselves as well. Anyway, we're done with the Animus for today. Let's grab a swift lunch, and then you can head over to the library, while I go and deliver the report of this to the Mentor."

Locking her account once again, and after double checking it, Blake followed her mentor towards the exit of the underground lab, her mind occupied by this recent development.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi there, Quick update for this chapter! Planning went quite fast and was finished even faster. I hope you guys enjoy this story!**

 **I'll be looking into working at Ch 20 of Weapons Pointed at the Enemy Redux soon-ish. Unfortunately real life is being a bitch still and the house is a mess (they're working on our balcony. So we had to move most of the furniture over into the house. Welp).**

 **Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Leave a review letting us know what you think about the story and enjoy!**

* * *

 **There we go, no more than two hours of writing. Collabs go so fast these days :P**

 **In between two other stories I'm writing on, as well as a large project together with several epic people, Vera and I found a few hours to work on this, and it was finished in but a moment. It's a chapter between two more action-filled chapters, but it did give us the opportunity to do some more storybuilding. Now, Vera has 2-3 hours to update chapter 20 of his main story, after that you can go bother him again. (** Vera note: Oh you horrible person.)

 **Thanks for reading, and thanks to those who added this story to their Alerts or Fav's, and be sure to leave a review to tell us what you think. :D**

 **-Alsodef**

* * *

After the glitch in the Animus, Blake had been doing overtime to rectify it. Together with the engineers, she had confirmed her fear. While the engineers and scientists had cheered at the repairing memory blocks, Blake had excused herself to write the report. However now, she was just blankly staring at the console before her.

 _What am I going to do now? If I'm found out.._ Blake thought to herself, feeling her throat tighten. She knew what would happen. It wouldn't be pretty.

Taking a deep breath, she continued typing.

 _Okay. I will need to keep careful track on the memories in order to know what progress they're repairing them at. For all I know, it might be a fluke and the plan continues as is._ Blake thought, typing the identificational data in the form.

 _I just need to make sure the preparations are ready. When I'm completely certain, we'll need to start the system overload and take them out of here. But for that, I'm going to need them to control their abilities first._

Blake finished typing, satisfied with the result. Blake saved the report and printed it, bound it together and shove it in a folder. Sighing to herself, she pushed away from the console and made her way over to Mr. Ironwood's office. The clacking of her heels reverberated in the hallway to the main area of the Research building, echoing like the ticking of a clock. It made Blake feel uneasy.

Standing outside Ironwood's door, she knocked. A gruff voice called 'come in' and Blake carefully opened the door.

"Sir, I have the report from this afternoon's Animus glitch." Blake said and walked over to his desk to place it there.

"Thank you, miss.." Ironwood said, letting his words trail off for her to answer. Blake looked at him. His eyes looked sunken, like he hadn't had a good night's rest in a long while. There was a scar on his eyebrow where a piece of bioengineering showed through. Abstergo had long perfected their methods of repairing the human body, but sometimes people chose to keep them as a reminder.

Blake realized she had been staring at his face and awkwardly responded. "D-de Lys, sir. My apologies." Blake said.

"Okay. Thank you miss De Lys. Tell the director that next time I wish to get a personal report from _her_ instead of her assistant. The research we do with the Animus is vital to Abstergo." he said, grabbing the report and flipping through it.

"Will do sir." Blake said and made her way back to the door. As her hand touched the handle she was stopped.

"Wait a moment, miss De Lys." Ironwood said, his face still looking down in the report.

"Yes, Mr. Ironwood?" Blake said, turning to him. Her heart felt like it beat in her throat.

"Your report is excellent. I'm impressed. I see a favorable future within Abstergo for you." Ironwood said, putting down the report and smiling genuinely at her.

"Thank you sir." Blake said and faked a smile back. In truth, the words felt like poison to her, knowing the truth about Abstergo.

"You are free to leave. Do not forget my words for the director." Ironwood said waving idly as he returned to look at the console before him.

"Will do sir." Blake said, before hurriedly leaving the office. She let out a deep breath and leaned against the wall next to the door, calming herself down. Seeing her day was over, she made her way back to the parking lot, stepping into her car to go home. During the ride, she would continue to be plagued by today's events.

* * *

"So… What was that?" the tallest among them asked. "It all looked so weird."

Weiss shook her head. "I honestly wouldn't know Yang. There was just this barrier, that none of us could pass through, and then that black _cloud-thing_ that killed the merchant. And then the

whiteness of the Animus, before we were extracted by that girl, forcefully."

"I cannot really blame her, Weiss. After all, we warned for things like this, that it might be dangerous for our real bodies."

"Guess you're right Ruby. Still, this room is sooo boooring…" Yang whined, putting emphasis on her last two words.

"Just take a book then." Ruby replied, pointing to the many bookshelves that stood along the walls, together with a television and a small fridge for refreshments.

"We're not all that addicted as you Rubes, reading is boring. Weiss, wanna spar?" Yang said, making a weird face at the mention of 'book'.

Ruby shook her head, while Weiss did the same. "We've sparred this morning, and you know I don't like it as much as you do. If you wanna exercise, go throw some punches at a bag. I, for one, need to do some studying anyway." At that, Weiss retreated to her room, closing the door behind her. Yang followed her example, and went towards her own room, probably to do just as Weiss suggested, and do some more exercising.

Ruby shrugged, and walked towards the large couch in the middle of their living room, picking up the book on the small table next to it, and throwing herself on the couch, landing on her back while opening the book mid-jump. While her thoughts were still on the weird events of today, she could now distract herself with a few hours of reading before their next scheduled dive, if that was still on the planning for today.

* * *

Blake sighed in relief as the heavy door of her apartment opened up. She slammed it shut and threw her keys in the bowl on the kitchen table. She dropped her bag unceremoniously near the coat rack and walked over to her fridge. Opening it up, she was glad she had the leftovers from last night left still. Today had been so hectic, she didn't feel much like cooking. Closing the fridge door, she nearly dropped her dinner on the floor as she was eye to eye with the face of a good friend of hers. She stumbled backwards, the heels she wore nearly making her fall over.

"Adam! Damnit! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she yelled at him, regaining her stability shortly after.

Adam laughed heartily at her reaction. "Oh come on Kitty-cat, you should be used to it by now. I mean, how long has it been that we've been friends?"

"Too long apparently." Blake grumbled and turned towards the couch, seeing yet another familiar face. "Cinder? Why are you here as well?".

"Why? Can't I visit a friend?" Cinder nearly purred. The tone of Cinder's voice was something that would make most people feel on edge for multiple reasons, but Blake had seen through it long ago.

"I suppose so. But still. I'm supposed to be undercover. It doesn't help if I get visitors. I can't explain what you two might be doing here if _for some reason_ they might barge in here." Blake said and started on the bowl of noodles.

"Oh come on Blake, don't be such a killjoy. We're your friends. We look out for you as well. And by the looks of things, today went absolutely _great._ " Adam said and smirked as he unceremoniously fell into one of the lounge chairs.

Blake rubbed the bridge of her nose and sat down next to Cinder on the couch. "The memories which were damaged those years ago are being repaired."

A moment of silence passed between the three, the smirks on both Adam and Cinder's lips gone.

"... Shit.." Cinder breathed.

"Yeah. Shit indeed." Blake sighed exasperated. "Still, I'll keep track on how fast it's going so we can see when we'll have to get them out.. _If_ we need to get them out.".

"I guess we'll relay that to the Mentor.. Ozpin won't be happy." Adam said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Cinder groaned. "Screw the Mentor. All he's letting us do is sit on our asses while Abstergo ruins the world.".

"Cinder.." Adam started. Blake looked confused between the two. She knew that Cinder had never been much of a fan of the injustice in this world and wasn't afraid to show it. Cinder had the power to be a one man army fending against Abstergo, but the Brotherhood preferred subtlety for a reason.

"No, Adam. Don't ' _Cinder'_ me. Even Mercury and Emerald agree. We're just sitting on our asses or getting killed. We're not _doing_ anything." Cinder said, her bright-amber eyes burning.

"Guys, can we please not do this right now. I've got enough on my plate as is. Let's just hang out."

Cinder huffed and closed her eyes. "Fine. But I stand by what I said."

Adam smiled and walked towards the fridge. "That's fine by me. But Blake, you got anything to drink in here? It seems like you could use a good drink.".

"Not in the fridge. Top-left cupboard. And pour me a big one." Blake said and took another bite of the noodles.

Adam pulled out the bottle of scotch and grinned. "Will do."

* * *

7PM, halfway through his evening shift, which already promised to go into a shift of overworking, and finished with all that he could do, James Ironwood placed his feet on his bureau, crossed, and took a long sip of his coffee. With a satisfied sigh, he closed his eyes for a few moments, and thought about today's events.

There had been problems with their main Subjects' Animus synchronisation. Somehow, some of the memories were corrupted, something that should be impossible. Their defences had been top of the line since the start of the Animus-project, but after the death of Subject 15 through 18, they had been sharpened even more. Abstergo's online database had been completely checked and cleansed, with not a single file left behind. And there hadn't been any influences from outside after that event.

Still, his vital test subjects had experienced a corrupted memory, with a black cloud and barriers barring both their vision and access to a certain part of the memory. James did not know what to make off this. His technical engineers were looking into it, and would probably report back to him when they were done and tests could continue.

Picking up the bound pile of papers on his desk, he wriggled his shoulders deeper into the pluche of his seat, and reread the rapport in front of him. The director of the Animus Department had been slacking off since the moment she started working here, and only reached her position thanks to favors owned by her predecessor. And now she didn't even bother writing reports herself, even with such a situation as there was now.

It was to be hoped that this director would step up her game. Or, James thought, perhaps it was best if she kept slacking off. If the delivered report, as well as her first week at Abstergo was any indication, miss De Lys would be a much better candidate. Looked nicer too.

"Enjoying your nap, Ironwood?"

It was as if the room was suddenly located on the arctic, without any form of heating. James Ironwood knew that voice well, and just as well knew in how much trouble he currently was. In a reflex, he flicked his feet off the desk, knocking over a stack of papers, and kick a mug of coffee with this spasm.

"Lady Salem… I… I didn't… I wasn't… This is not what…"

"Silence James, and grow a spine already. I just wanted to check up on you and your progress. I received a report about trouble with the subjects?" Her voice sounded calming, but that was not the effect it had on Abstergo's main director.

'Yes, milady. There was a problem with the Animus. Something about a corrupted memory. I was in the process of studying the report from the assistant who was guiding the memory sequence in the Animus. The technicians are studying the data sequence at the moment, and will report back to me the moment they know something. It is either a memory we missed during the cleanup, or one that was discovered or recovered later. It might also be possible that the three subjects have a stronger part of their ancestor's DNA, unlocking additional memories we didn't know existed before." James looked at the Grand Master of his order, and continued.

"Nonetheless, progress is expected to continue tomorrow, since our subjects have reported no illnesses or headaches, nor do they show any of the symptoms of the bleeding effect like our previous subjects had after this, it should be safe to assume that this corruption does not cause them any physical damage. However, security against cyber attacks has been increased, and there will be more supervision of the subjects when they are in the animus."

Salem nodded. "Very well. At least our current subjects do make rather significant progress. Now, I fear my time here is limited. I have an appointment with some of our esteemed colleagues. Will I be seeing you next monday?"

The Master of the Templar order nodded at Salem. "Of course, milady. I will be at the meeting, hopefully with good news." At this, Salem smiled, possibly sincere, and left the office. James Ironwood stayed behind on his own, report in one hand, while coffee kept spoiling several documents on his table. He didn't notice, as his mind was somewhere else, deep in thought about the current situation, and what little he could do about it.

* * *

Slightly hungover, yet pepped up with a bunch of vitamin-pills and coffee, Blake parked her car at the parking lot for Abstergo Personnel. Greeting the guard that was smoking a cigarette at the entrance, she walked towards her own office. Logging into the computer, she opened up her to-do list for the day.

Yesterday evening, she had received an email that today memory dives would continue as always, so her main task to start the day was the booting up of the machines in the Animus-room. Seeing as she had half an hour left before the first dive was scheduled, Blake decided to just get it over with. Leaving her comfortable chair, she picked up her keycard and walked to the Animus room.

"Hey, Belle, was it?"

Blake looked up from her computer screen to see the blonde haired girl standing in the doorway to the animus room. Her name was Yang, if she remembered her briefing correctly.

"That's right. What's the matter? Your dive isn't scheduled for another twenty minutes.

"No, I came to see if the dives were gonna be done today, or if there were still problems."

"Ah, sure. All problems should be fixed, so you three should be good to go."

"Thanks." Yang said, a bit put off as the girl she was talking with just replied with a nod and focussed on her computer screen again.

"Hey, uhm…" An awkward silence followed as Belle looked back up from her screen. "I was wondering, how did you get in here? I mean, most people working here are older than you are. You're around my age, right?"

"I'm twenty-three, so a bit older than you are... And well, I just like working with history, so I chose a profession that had something to do with that, and wasn't teaching. Anyway, I'm afraid you must excuse me, miss Xiao Long. I have quite a bit of preparation to do for today's sequence, since protocol changed after yesterday's events. I'll see you, miss Rose and miss Schnee in around twenty minutes."

Recognising dismissal, and seeing that the girl in front of her was indeed still very busy, Yang walked back to her room. Maybe Ruby would finally be awake by now, although that was probably too optimistic.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:**

 **Nothing special. New chapter. Voila. I'm not going to make this long since I also want to start working on Weapons Pointed at the Enemy. So yeah, took us a while to make the chapter, but we're still updating it!**

 **DefDef: This is done, enjoy!**

* * *

As Yang entered the room, she could see Weiss nurse her sleepiness with a mug of coffee. She was reading through a book with one hand and blowing the steam off the coffee cup in an attempt to cool it.

"Hey Weiss, is Ruby up yet? We've got our dives in.." Yang said and quickly glanced at the clock. "Fifteen minutes.".

Weiss didn't look up from her book, simply taking a small sip from her hot beverage. "No. I think she's still sleeping. Whatever she was reading had her up all night, I think." she said, taking another sip.

Yang groaned loudly. "By the way, what were _you_ doing out at this time? Usually I'm the first one awake." Weiss questioned and shot Yang a questioning glare.

"Oh. I was just. Uhh. I was just checking in with Belle if we still had the dives." Yang said.

"Belle?" Weiss said and raised an eyebrow at Yang.

"Yeah. That new girl. Or woman." Yang said. "Anyway, I'll wake up Ruby. Again, dive is in fifteen minutes."

"Right." Weiss said unimpressed and returned to her book.

Yang barged into Ruby's room, a soft murmuring coming from the large lump underneath the crimson bedding. Yang sighed to herself and grabbed the covers, pulling it from the bed causing Ruby to wake up startled.

"I'm up! I'm up! I'm up! I'm up!-" Ruby yelled loudly until she saw Yang stand there. "Yang?".

"Rubes, get out of bed! Our dive is in, ten minutes now or something!" Yang said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Ah! Right! Sorry!" Ruby said and quickly made her way over to her bathroom, leaving the headshaking Yang behind.

Yang made her way back to the common room and sat down on the couch, waiting patiently for their call to go to the Animus. Yang's thoughts stuck to the strange new girl however. It was almost like she was lying. Subtle hints making it seem like 'Belle' was wearing a mask and hiding who she really was. Not to mention how quickly she was integrated into the process made it all seem even stranger.

A tap on her shoulder shook her from the apparent trance she was in. "Come on, get up. We need to go." Weiss said with an impatient huff as she left the common-room. Ruby was still busy munching on her toast as she followed. Yang stood up as well and followed them through the hallway to the Animus room.

There, three identical Animus 'beds' stood in the middle of the open room, a single console connected to all three of them. One by one, Ruby, Weiss and Yang laid on their designated Animus 'beds' and the screens extended over their heads. The rhythmic tapping of Belle's fingernails upon the console was slowly drowned out as they each entered the Animus.

* * *

Ruby took a deep breath, bend her knees slightly and focussed her eyes ahead of her. Next to her, Yang was doing the exact same. Suddenly, the blonde girl bursted into full speed, Ruby doing the same a few moments later. It was what they always did when loading into the Animus, to Weiss' greatest irritation.

As usual, the white girl just stood still and studied her weapons, or rather, Winter's weapons. Weiss shook her head, it was something that happened more often these days. She would think of herself as Winter, and could see the images of Summer and Raven over Ruby and Yang. It bothered her, yet she had kept quiet about it thus far. If it would get any worse she would speak about it with someone, a doctor or something.

The world around them lit up, and the city of Vacuo shimmered in beneath their feet. Another familiar white screen later, and they were in the bodies of their ancestors.

"Uhm, guys… You seeing this?" Ruby said, a few seconds after their synchronisation began, pointing at a shimmering cloud of blacked out screen and code.

"Yes, it looks similar to yesterday. Though… Less active?" Yang said, walking around it.

"You might be right… What is this?" Ruby asked, though neither of her two companions could answer that.

" _ **Ca/;n we f{ñ}ocus ?/Please?**_ "

The voice startled all three of them, as it came from the black 'cloud' and was heavily distorted.

Still, the voice had a point, they didn't even know their objective yet, and who knew how much time they had.

"Ah, welcome Summer, Raven, Winter, _**B*( &nn[**_. It's good to see you again. I've send for you because of recent increased Templar activity over here. There are way more soldiers than necessary for a pile of sand as Vacuo, and certain zones in the city are restricted for anyone not bearing the cross. Whatever it is, there has to be a reason for an operation as large as this. Everything as big as this, warrants an inquiry from the Assassins, and none but the best. Your objective is to find out what the Templars are doing, then report back to the Headquarters in Vacuo."

Weiss looked at her HUD, which now showed the objective below the display of her map.

[ ] - _**Find out what the Templars are doing.**_

[ ] - _Report to HQ_

"Okaaaay… Well, let's go?" Ruby said with a smile, causing the black cloud to rush out of the room and climb up the nearest wall she could find, not waiting for the rest of them.

Behind them, the guild master laughed. "Hah, she's an odd one, isn't she. Now, you three go into the city. Take a look around and see what you can find. I'll be waiting for you over here."

* * *

In the console, a representation of the data of each of the subjects was shown together with the 3D environment the subjects saw. Due to it being the only direct connection to the Animus, only she could see each and every moment they made. Of course, she'd have to write reports on it, detailed explanations of the events in the memory. But still, it gave her something she sorely needed. Time, and time to think at that. Faking the reports wouldn't be an option. There were older reports, some with these exact memories from previous subjects. So they'd need to correlate. But the glitch, _her_ ancestor, proved to be an interesting anomaly within the Templars' systems.

Blake had already run through most of the memories of her ancestor, and knew exactly what would happen. But the realization gave her a moment of pause. She _did_ know exactly what the path they were going down was. Blake then realized, what the templars were looking for.

Not only that, she realized how much time she had. The Animus was stable, the forced glitch of her own ancestor not interfering too much as with the memory they ran through yesterday. Blake thought back to the events of these memories and how much time it had taken her to get through them as she kept observing the subjects in the Animus.

 _Nine.. No. Ten days. It took me exactly ten days to complete these memories._ Blake thought to herself. She felt a lump grow in her throat.

She had only ten days to think of an escape plan.

* * *

 _ **Memory Skipped Forward.**_

[ X ] - _Find out what the Templars are doing._

[ X ] - _Report to HQ_

[ X ] - Find main camp of Templar forces.

[ X ] - Infiltrate Templar Encampment and Find the Templar Orders.

[ ] - **Escape from the Templar Encampment and become anonymous.**

Ruby looked back at the encampment below her. This was one of her more cleaner infiltration runs. Now, only one thing remained. She stood on top of a large stone pillar, placed at the side of the quarry the Templar encampment was located in. According to what she had glanced from the orders, there was a tomb site somewhere here, but given the amount of security, that thing was probably hidden somewhere as well. Ruby smiled as she turned around and looked down. On the ground, far below her, Ruby spotted a sight all Assassins loved: a fresh bale of hay. Taking a deep sigh, Ruby ran to the edge and jumped off. She had done this many times already, but the sensation still thrilled her. Halfway down the distance, she swung herself around, now falling with her back down first. Several meters before impact, her aura flared briefly, and suddenly hay was all around her. Ruby enjoyed the soft feeling for several seconds, before bursting out of the haybale.

"What do you have, Summer?" The voice of Raven said to her side.

"No idea. Or rather, only a gist of an idea. They are searching for something, a tomb. We'll have to look through these orders more clearly at the Headquarters, I think…"

"Very well, let's meet up with Winter then, and return to the hideout."

Ruby joined Yang in a climb to the roof, and rushed after her, red cape billowing because of the speed. Part one of their mission was complete.

[ ] - **Return to the Hideout in Vacuo**

* * *

Weiss blended in seamlessly with the monks, keeping the snow-white hood over her head as she tailed the guards. She had secured and tracked two different patrol routes so far, and was hoping this was the last, but there was still a mission to do, whether this was the last one or not.

In the corner of her eyes she saw the guards make their way into an alley close to the main gate of the City of Vacuo. Winter, her ancestor, silently slipped away from the monks closer to the alley. She peeked inside, making sure she wouldn't be seen. The small squadron of four men was loudly talking, the sounds reverberating along the walls of the alley itself.

Keeping her own noise to a minimum, she continued tailing them in the shadows of the houses. In her mind, she cursed at the amount of coarse sand dusting up. She made it a few steps into the alleyway when she felt she was grabbed. A man grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alcove.

"Aren't you a delightful morsel." the man spoke. Judging from his breath, Weiss assumed the man was drunk. Internally, she rolled her eyes as Weiss triggered the mechanism for the hidden blade in her glove and pointed it underneath the man's chin as she grabbed him roughly in return and held him against the wall.

Immediately, the sirens of desynchronization blared and her hud glitched as a single drop of blood from the small puncture landed on her hidden blade. Without a word Weiss retracted the blade and threw the man back into the wall, where he collapsed wide-eyed to the ground. Weiss looked up and saw that the guards had gone out of the alley and the synchronization gauge had still not returned to full. Quickly she climbed up on the roof of the buildings making the alley.

Running topside to the exit of the alley, Weiss saw the synchronization gauge refill. Then she gazed on the busy market, focussing intently and gaining the vision to see what she _needed_ to see. It was explained to her as an ability called 'Eagle vision.'. It was something the Brotherhood had developed throughout the years and perfected to the point that they could train others in it. Immediately, four yellow figures lighted up for Weiss. Relieved, she continued to tail them to their final destination.

Hopping agilely from roof to roof and sometimes climbing up even higher, she could see them walk a completely different pattern compared to that of the other guards. Seeing them walk straight across a busy market square, Weiss took the opportunity to come closer. Jumping off a roof, startling a merchant that sold cloth and spices -an odd combination, if you'd ask her- and weaving a way through all the people to come closer. In previous memories they had faced situations where they did not have the advantage of relative anonymity.

It wasn't long before the guards turned again, yet this time into a quite impressive building. Weiss cursed. Following them into this building would take some serious effort. Standing on her toes, Weiss tried to look into the building as best as possible. It did little good, and only drew some strange glances from the people around her. Deciding that she could do little more here, Weiss decided to return back to the Hideout instead, and leave the infiltration of this building to another day. Swirling around -she couldn't get enough of how beautiful the motion of her cape looked- she stepped back into the crowd, and made way to leave the square.

- _Warning: De-Synchronisation Imminent. Return to Mission Area-_

"What the…" She huffed, turning back on the square. It seemed like she would have to find a way into that building anyway. Taking a good look at all the guards, a plan started to form in Weiss' head. The roof to the right of the high building only had one soldier stationed on top of it. It wouldn't be all that hard to kill him, and get on top of the main building like that. Picking up a small pace, Weiss made her way to the alleyway behind the building she would scale.

Nobody had seen her killing the guard, as planned. Now, she would have an estimated six minutes before someone would notice the guard was not where he was. Less if any guard on guard duty had close contact with him. With no time to lose, Weiss took the jump and clung to a gargoyle on the outer wall. Within seconds, she had scaled the wall, and stood on an unmanned roof. She was lucky. The roof had a ceiling with lots of glass. If she was careful, she could see everything inside, without being spotted. Making sure to not let a shadow be cast through the windows, she slowly slid herself up to one, and looked down.

Weiss shook her head, once, twice, once more. No, she had seen it right. This was serious business, even more than they had expected thus far. She rose to her feet, and jumped down on top of another building, this time without a guard. She had to let the others know…


End file.
